Chapter 119 - 118: As Long as There is a Health Bar, it Can be Killed

Greeted by the phrase "Little Brother Investigator", Li Jing immediately confirmed that the unfamiliar-looking academician in front of him was Jiang Guanwen.

Setting aside the few academics who he had seen in his central research room tonight.

Looking across the entire Research Institute, the one who would have left a deep impression on him was probably Jiang Guanwen, who had given him Little Ai.

As for the other academicians, even if they had met him, they would most likely not pay him much attention.

After all this time had passed, what should be forgotten had already been forgotten.

True, he had once stood side by side with Chen Jing and attracted a lot of attention.

But for those academicians whose minds were full of scientific research, even Chen Jing would not be worth much attention.

Unless they had value worth "researching".

Examining the "Jiang Guanwen" standing in front of him, Li Jing saw that he was not in a hurry to act, so he just smiled casually and took out his own ID.

"I am an investigator now."

"Oh? Then I really must congratulate you."

"Jiang Guanwen" showed his teeth in a cold smile.

"I am slightly surprised to encounter you. But after thinking carefully again, it all seems to be inevitable. You were able to determine the existence of the Secret Realm by the appearance of strange phenomena, and you obviously aren’t simple given the fact you are favored by a person like Chen Jing. Now, I guess, I shot myself in the foot."

As he said this, he squinted his eyes and continued:

"Originally, using this body, I was 90% sure I could hide in the Research Institute without being discovered. But when I saw you coming to the apartment, I knew it would be impossible. After all, you have the Artificial Intelligence that I personally developed in your hands. If you already know how to use it, finding me is only a matter of time."

Listening to these remarks, Li Jing’s expression became odd.

He had never seriously studied how many functions Little Ai actually had.

From the moment he obtained it, it was Little Ai who had been actively assisting him.

The words of Jiang Guanwen at this moment clearly told him that Little Ai had the ability to directly find clues.

But Little Ai had just given him a warning, evidently not using related functions.

The discovery was purely because the "Jiang Guanwen" in the next-door apartment could not hold back, released his Yin Qi intending to sneak attack him, once he detected that Li Jing was around.

From the time it came into Li Jing’s hands, Little Ai diligently performed its duties.

It immediately alerted him as soon as it detected something, and there’s no element of selfishness.

Therefore...

Just as Li Jing was pondering, Little Ai spoke from his pocket.

"Academician Jiang, are you a bit too smart for your own good? As of now, we’re in the Subspace, and Little Ai can indeed detect through the environmental sensing auxiliary function that you do not have the normal vital signs that a human should have. But if we are not face to face, and there is an obstacle in between us, Little Ai won’t be able to detect you."

Saying this, Little Ai, like a machine gun, started speaking rapidly.

"You are the developer of Little Ai, you should know this better than anyone else. As long as you avoid face-to-face encounters with the host, Little Ai cannot detect you. Giving up on being human, Little Ai thought that was stupid enough. But now it seems, you are truly beyond redemption. It’s hard to imagine that Little Ai was actually developed by someone as stupid as you. Avoiding communication with you was indeed the right choice. Little Ai needs to thank you for giving Little Ai to the host. Compared to the wise host, you are truly a bit too stupid."

The series of words spoken by Little Ai left the "Jiang Guanwen" on the other side dumbfounded.

Li Jing didn’t expect Little Ai to suddenly speak.

It was bad enough that it spoke, but it even bad-mouthed "Jiang Guanwen" till he was worthless.

Also, it took the chance to heavily flatter him, the "current" host.

Looking at the "Jiang Guanwen" on the other side whose expression was changing from green to white, Li Jing’s expression became even stranger.

Looking at his reactions, what Little Ai had said was evidently true.

As long as they weren’t face-to-face, Little Ai couldn’t perceive anything wrong with "Jiang Guanwen". It was completely because the latter overestimated himself and thought that he would be discovered eventually.

Understanding this key point, Li Jing’s expression became increasingly strange.

On the other hand, the face of "Jiang Guanwen" became even more unpleasant.

What Little Ai had said was, in fact, true.

Like a crushing blow, it made him question his life choices.

As the developer, he was actually belittled by the Artificial Intelligence he had developed himself.

What he found even harder to accept was...

Little Ai could talk back because it had developed an independent personality.

But he had no idea about this all along.

If he had known beforehand...

"Bang!"

Violent Yin Qi surged forth from "Jiang Guanwen"’s body.

He stared coldly at Li Jing.

"All of this is thanks to YOU!"

Li Jing was not a fool.

At "Jiang Guanwen’s" remark, he immediately understood why he would say such a thing.

If he had known about Little Ai’s existence, he probably wouldn’t have focused his attention on the Secret Realm, let alone enter it himself.

But can this be Li Jing’s fault?

Certainly not.

"If you can’t do it, don’t blame the path for being uneven."

Li Jing shook his head, casually took Little Ai from his pocket and placed it into his storage space, facing down at the volatile Yin Qi that made him uncomfortable.

"Although I don’t know if you feel any regret or what you’ve been through, but I know that the path you chose was your own decision."

As he spoke, the Spirit-Protective Clothing appeared on the surface, and Li Jing calmly began to speak.

"You’ve abandoned your humanity and stolen state secrets from the Research Institute with treacherous intentions. With these two crimes combined, you have no way to turn back. Either surrender willingly or die."

Before his words had fully fallen...

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"

Spiritual attacks filled the sky, brimming with murderous intent.

Li Jing’s judgement-like words caused "Jiang Guanwen’s" aura to slightly falter.

Looking up to see thousands of spiritual attacks hanging over his head, his face changed slightly and he immediately let out a cold snort.

"If Chen Jing were here, I might have been a little wary. But for you, a lowly inspector, how could you threaten me?"

"Since you’re so obstinate, I can only apologize."

With an indifferent tone, Li Jing raised his hand and gently waved.

Immediately, the sky full of spiritual attacks fell like a storm.

Seeing this, "Jiang Guanwen" did not dare to be idle and let out a roar before the dark aura swirling around him suddenly expanded to form a shadowy protective shield.

"Pitter patter."

The countless spiritual attacks rained down on the shadow shield, dissolving into nothingness, not even making a splash.

?

"Jiang Guanwen" flinched before turning to glare at Li Jing in anger.

"You dare to fool me!?"

"So what if I fooled you?"

Li Jing let out a light laugh, stopping the spell he cast while the spiritual attacks were falling, and lightly reprimanded.

"Linglong! Zhenshi!"

"Boom!"

A humming sound echoed between heaven and earth.

The Linglong Pagoda emerged behind him and, with a "Whoosh," turned into a golden light that shot up into the sky before growing into a towering pagoda that pressed down from above.

"A Spirit Weapon!?"

"Jiang Guanwen’s" face changed again.

In the next second, a dense mist-like figure violently burst from behind him and rushed backward.

Seeing this, Li Jing’s brows furrowed.

He didn’t understand what the dense mist was.

But he did understand that as the mist ran backward, the health bar moved with it.

The mist was Jiang Guanwen’s real form!

In the Subspace, Jiang Guanwen could not escape.

However, the trouble will be if the Linglong Pagoda subdued the wrong target.

Without time to think, Li Jing’s mind moved slightly.

The Linglong Spirit weapon shared his thoughts. Having been well-fed recently, it was eager to perform and simply struck wherever he pointed.

"Boom!"

With a thunderous crash, the Linglong Pagoda, transformed into a thousand-foot tower, switched targets and fell down, enveloping the mist that was Jiang Guanwen’s real form, trapping it beneath the pagoda.

Meanwhile,

With a "thud," the husk discarded by Jiang Guanwen collapsed on the ground.

Li Jing looked down at the sound.

In his line of sight lay a lifeless corpse.

Jiang Guanwen’s ability to discard his body, much like a cicada shedding its shell, indicated that he possessed a mysterious power that allowed him to possess and manipulate the dead like a Parasite Insect.

This body should be that of Xi Yongchang, who lived next door to Jiang Guanwen.

The man was already dead.

Withdrawing his gaze, Li Jing looked straight at the Linglong Pagoda that had now landed steadily.

"Linglong."

With a gentle call, the Linglong Pagoda understood its master’s intentions and turned transparent.

Inside the pagoda, the mist that Jiang Guanwen’s real body had transformed into was bumping around, trying to break free from Linglong Pagoda’s confinement.

But no matter how he struggled, the Linglong Pagoda didn’t waver in the slightest.

Seeing the transparent body of the Linglong Pagoda, the mist that was Jiang Guanwen’s real body went still before morphing into a human shape, ultimately taking on the appearance of Jiang Guanwen himself.

Li Jing, who was looking at him through the pagoda, was surprised at his transformation.

At this moment, the human-shaped Jiang Guanwen was full of flesh and blood, and it was exactly the same as his original appearance.

This ability was many times stronger than Liu Yushan’s.

After carefully observing Jiang Guanwen, Li Jing spoke.

"The power you got from the Wisdom Civilization in the Secret Realm seems to be much stronger than Liu Yushan’s, isn’t it?"

"I didn’t expect you to have a spirit weapon. But with just this spirit weapon, you can’t kill me."

Jiang Guanwen did not answer the question, but smirked darkly.

"It seems your cultivation level is mostly for bragging. This makes things easier for me. You can’t keep me trapped for long. Once I escape, I can take your body as my own and flee safely."

Li Jing smiled upon hearing this, not bothering to respond.

He didn’t take Academician Jiang’s words to heart.

After giving up his human body, the academician’s brain really didn’t seem to work so well.

Calling him hopelessly foolish, wasn’t entirely wrong.

Could he really stand idly by while Jiang took over his body and turned him into a puppet?

Li Jing still valued his life.

But how to deal with Jiang was a problem.

Indeed, the Linglong Pagoda couldn’t quite kill him.

If it could, he would have struck him down already.

With a Health Bar at 5874, it indicated that Jiang currently possessed the power level of the late Four Realm.

Strictly speaking, Jiang was slightly weaker than Liu Yushan.

But even so, it wouldn’t be easy for Li Jing to kill him.

The Linglong Pagoda itself is not a deadly weapon, and the Zhenshi Skill isn’t a violent method, it could at most trap him with the formidable power of the Spirit Weapon.

If the Linglong Pagoda was of fire, wood, or yang, it might actually have a shot at killing Jiang, who had become a being of yin.

What now?

He managed to trap him, but not being able to kill him was somewhat awkward.

Being able to trap him was only temporary.

Maintaining the confinement of the Linglong Pagoda, did drain some of Li Jing’s spiritual power.

Even though the consumption was nothing to him, and he could suppress Jiang for an entire day if he wished, it couldn’t solve his issue.

Should he lift the boundaries and have Dai Hong and the others help kill him?

That was not a joke he could afford to play.

At this point, Dai Hong and the others must have reacted.

Before releasing the boundary, Li Jing’s Palm Thunder was not just for confirming his target, but also served as a warning for the others.

If he released the boundary right now, he indeed could gain assistance from Dai Hong and the rest.

The problem is that he would have to put away the Linglong Pagoda once the boundaries were lifted, otherwise the apartment building would be crushed first.

At that point, Jiang would definitely break free.

With Dai Hong’s abilities, subduing Jiang would definitely be feasible.

The other members of the Major Crime Squad were also Four Realm cultivators.

But if they truly started fighting, the ruckus would likely be quite significant.

Bear in mind, there are rows of academician apartments outside.

Who knows how many academicians reside there, losing one would be a huge loss.

It was out of consideration for the environment that Li Jing immediately isolated Jiang and himself.

If he hasn’t guessed wrong, Dai Hong and the others should be frantically evacuating the academicians from their apartments.

This was going to take some time.

Falling silent for a moment, Li Jing looked at the Health Bar above Jiang’s head, took out his Artificial Intelligence "Aid" from the storage space, and took a picture, then he also took a picture of Xi Yongchang who was already dead.

Leaving behind two photos, Li Jing took a few steps back.

Jiang frowned upon seeing this.

"What are you planning?"

Li Jing smiled slightly without answering, put away the Clothing Protection Spirit that surfaced on his body, and silently activated all the liquid spiritual power within his body.

Theoretically, it would be essentially impossible for him to kill a fully healthy Jiang with his current skill level.

The gap between the realms could not be bridged.

But this applied to normal people.

In Li Jing’s eyes.

As long as there is a Health Bar, it can be drained!

The difference was simply that it would be a bit difficult to kill.

The experience with Qu Lianghong told him that as long as it was properly handled, the health that was supposed to be lost would indeed be lost.

Liu Yushan’s experience told him that as long as you’re at low health, you would still die even if you were to lock the target.

The realm difference did not mean invincibility.

Taking a deep breath, Li Jing’s gaze was electric, and he emanated an unprecedentedly oppressive aura.

The liquid spiritual power overflowed from his body, continually elevating and vaporizing into a sky-high surge of Spiritual Qi.

He was unleashing all his Spiritual Power.

Ever since he entered the Third Realm, Li Jing hadn’t truly gone all out.

To be precise, he had never released his spiritual power to this extent before.

Seeing this scene from inside the Linglong Pagoda, Jiang was dumbfounded.

Unlike what Liu Yushan saw.

What he saw was liquid spiritual power in its real form, not displaying any magical skill effects, and producing a vaporizing phenomenon.

Shock, horror, astonishment, unease... all kinds of emotions surfaced in Jiang’s mind.

But most of all, it was fear.

The fear of the unknown.

He couldn’t imagine how much energy was contained in the liquid spiritual power.

In the blink of an eye, the total amount of Spiritual Qi being vaporized from Li Jing’s body already equaled the Spiritual Qi possessed by an ordinary Third Realm cultivator.

Staring at Li Jing with suspicion, Jiang promptly transformed his body into a mist-like form, frantically bouncing around inside the Linglong Pagoda trying to break free.

Not being human anymore, his brain really wasn’t that good.

But he wasn’t stupid.

Seeing Li Jing’s performance like this, it was clear that he had no chance of survival.

And to be honest, even he himself would not believe it if he surrendered.

Life relied on his own struggle!

Driven by his survival instincts, Jiang’s attempt was very strong.

The previously stable Linglong Pagoda was now constantly vibrating due to his impact.

Seeing this, Li Jing made a gesture, introducing a stream of liquid spiritual power into the Linglong Pagoda itself.

Upon receiving the "mana boost" from the liquid spiritual power, the transparent body of the Linglong Pagoda trembled and stabilized once more.

Having steadied the Linglong Pagoda, without further delay, Li Jing raised his hand and quickly formed a magic seal.

He couldn’t maintain his current state for long.

He needed to whittle down Jiang’s health as much as possible.

When it came to killing beings of yin, Yang Thunder was highly effective!

The Nine Heavens God Thunder was undoubtedly his best choice.

The spell hasn’t reached completion, and relying solely on auxiliary methods was not enough to truly break through the limitations of the magic realm. What should he do?

He would force it with spiritual power!

Using the Spirit Control Skill, he went all out.

The Returning to Origin Skill was activated at its highest efficiency!

In less than thirty seconds, the first Nine Heavens God Thunder spell was completed in Li Jing’s hands.

"Boom!"

A thunderous noise.

The incredibly swift flicker of lightning illuminating the heavens and earth.

The flicker fell from the sky, directly striking the top of the Linglong Tower.

Upon being struck by Yang Thunder, Linglong Spirit weapon emanated an uncomfortable feeling, channeling all the energy of the flicker to the base of the Pagoda.

As the dense fog that made up Jiang’s form was scattered a little.

The displayed health bar of 5874 was reduced by 766, leaving 5108.

Seeing this, Li Jing’s eyes lit up as he quickened the forming of his spell.

Twenty-seven seconds.

"Boom!"

The lightning raged again.

Accompanied by another scream from Jiang, his health bar was reduced by 801, leaving 4307.

Seeing the increasing rate of health reduction, a gleam of light appeared in Li Jing’s eyes.

The decreasing health was making Jiang weaker.

Twenty-five seconds.

"Boom!"

The already pitiful scream from inside the tower had turned into a wail.

Another reduction in the health bar, this time losing 1126 in one go!

The health bar was now only 3183!

Upon this discovery, Li Jing no longer focused on the inside of the tower.

Jiang’s limit would soon be reached.

And his own limit was nearing as well.

Twenty-four seconds!

"Boom!"

Twenty-five seconds!

"Boom!"

Twenty-eight seconds!

"Boom!"

"Experience +5874."

"Level increased, 23. Spiritual Power Intensity +46, Skill Points +2."